ChinaHR.com Publishes the Ninth Survey Report on Best Employers Among Chinese University Students.

The preference for SOEs declines

Foreign-funded and private companies challenge the SOEs predominance as Employer Brands in 2011

BEIJING, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- ChinaHR.com has released its ninth survey report on the Best Employers among Chinese University Students today. The report reveals that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are losing ground as the preferred employers in the eyes of graduates. Private companies and foreign-invested enterprises are regaining attractiveness as employers in the post-financial crisis era. In its ninth edition, the report is recognized as the most authoritative and credible source in ranking graduate employers in China.

"The Survey of Best Employers is designed to help the university students and the general public better understand the corporate talent strategies," says Edward B Lo, Executive Vice-President of Monster Greater China and CEO of ChinaHR.com. He mentioned that university students use the ranking in planning their careers. "The previous surveys have shown that companies dedicated to building a strong employer brand and demonstrating their corporate culture, have a competitive edge in attracting, training and retaining talents. As a result, their talent is a basis for sustainable competitiveness and growth."

The Top 5 employers in 2011 are China Mobile, Bank of China, Alibaba.com, Microsoft and ICBC. The 2011 survey is based on the votes of nearly 200,000 students from 764 universities and colleges in China. ChinaHR.com has released the list of TOP 50 Most Favored Enterprises and TOP 10 Most Favored Industries.

In 2011, China and the rest of the world have stepped out of the shadow of the global economic crisis and have entered into the post-crisis era. The Best Employers 2011 survey was conducted during this boom period and was thus in the center of public attention. The results show that, with the economic recovery well on the way, particularly foreign-invested enterprises are challenging the leading positions of SOEs as best employers. Private companies have also gained momentum. On the index used by ChinaHR.com to rank the Best Employers, SOEs score a total of 542 points and continue to be the mostly favored employers by university students. The private companies rank the second with a total score of 390 points, an increase of over 100 points against that in 2010. The foreign-funded enterprises scored 245 points, compared with 140 points in the previous year. This is in sharp contrast with the two previous surveys, whose results showed that SOEs, providing favorable benefits and stable jobs during the crisis, had performed much better than the other two types of enterprises and gained the favor of most university students in China.

The index is compiled by allocating a value of 1-50 to each TOP 50 enterprise, whereby the No.1 receives 50 points and No.50 receives one point. The sum of the scores of all companies in one category make up the total score.

The lead of SOEs is narrowing and foreign-invested enterprises and private companies have regained attractiveness in the eyes of university graduates.

This year's survey revealed that the recognition of employer brand of SOEs among university students has dropped slightly after its dramatic increase in 2010, and the gap between SOEs and the other two types of enterprises shortened. At the same time, the recognition of employer brands of foreign-invested enterprises rose gradually after a substantial decrease last year.

Similar trends may also be seen in this survey about the nature of enterprises preferred by college students, that is, the lead of SOEs has been narrowing whereas foreign-invested companies have regained favor. During the economic crisis in 2010, only 14.5% of college students exclusively opted for foreign-owned enterprises as their first job choice; however, this number has soared to 32% this year.

According to ChinaHR.com, "with the upturning economy, industries of fast consumable commodities and services are recovering also. Enterprises in these industries have regained favor of university students. Therefore, as foreign-invested enterprises are leading in these industries, they have won back recognition and increased their attractiveness from university students."

The recent upsurge of listings of Internet-based companies has increased their charm to job-hunters, making them the focus of attention among university students. Among those newly listed enterprises this year are such first-rate web portals as Sina and Sohu, which, with their advantages in the field of Internet, have enabled private enterprises to overwhelm foreign-invested enterprises and take the second place among the recognition of employer brand for university students this year.

However, this year's Best Employer Survey indicates that in the fields of energy, finance and telecom, SOEs are still the most favored enterprises by university students.

Education and culture industries surpasses the financial industry as the preferred Industry among university students.

Based on the analysis of the top ten industries preferred by university students, the education and culture industries have surpassed finance, which ranked first over the past three years. Education and culture has become the preferred industry among university students with 9.6% of students interested in sector this year. While in 2009, this industry did not even make the top ten.

Commenting on this phenomenon, ChinaHR.com suggests that the "12th Five-Year Plan" dedicated a separate chapter to the education and culture industries, so it can be foreseen that they will develop into key industries at the state-level with promising futures.

"It can be seen from the survey this year that university students are highly sensitive to state policies. There is a clear trend towards education and culture industries," said Liu Xingyang, a human resources expert with ChinaHR.com.

Also noteworthy is that since the beginning of 2011 when the post-crisis era start, exports in China are under sustainable recovery and consumption is increasing at a stable pace. Although the increase of investment has started to drop, the first year of the "12th Five-Year Plan" is certain to witness stable economic growth. University students are reflecting the positive economic outlook and are showing prudent yet optimistic confidence in job-hunting this year.

Beijing and Shanghai have the greatest appeal to talents, while Guangzhou is facing a more heated competition for talents from other cities in Guangdong Province.

Compared with Beijing and Shanghai, the Guangzhou job market exhibits less appeal for both local students and students from other areas.

The survey shows that 9.1% of university students nationwide wish to work in Beijing after graduation. Shanghai ranks second, attracting 5.2% of university graduates. Guangzhou's appeal for talent is relatively weak, attracting only 3.8% of university students. In terms of the appeal for students from local colleges and universities, Beijing and Shanghai have the greatest appeal, attracting respectively 72.2% and 71.9% students of the total sum. By contrast, Guangzhou has less appeal for local college and university students, with only 52.7% of the total wishing to find in the city they study.

In analyzing this phenomenon, ChinaHR.com holds the view that, on the one hand, a city's appeal for talent depends on its level and prospects of development and livability; on the other hand, it is affected by its neighboring cities, especially those with a highly competitive edge and without enough colleges and universities of their own.

Among the neighboring cities of Beijing, Tianjin is the only relatively competitive city. However, Tianjin itself boasts a large number of key universities and a sufficient reserve of talent. Consequently, it does not have to compete with Beijing for talent. Beijing is therefore under smaller pressure of talent competition. Shanghai is surrounded by many competitive cities, but it is second only to Hong Kong in its urban competitiveness and enjoys a large lead in its comprehensive strength against its neighboring cities. In addition, the overall education level in the Yangtze River Delta region is relatively advanced. Apart from Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou also have a relatively abundant output of talent. Therefore, these two cities do not face a fierce competition for talent with Shanghai.

By Contrast, Guangzhou faces more heated competition for talents from quite a few neighboring cities. Guangzhou ranks only sixth in terms of urban competitiveness, lower than one of its neighbors - Shenzhen, which ranks in fourth place. Foshan and Dongguan, two of Guangzhou's neighboring cities in Guangdong Province have been developing at an accelerated speed in recent years. Cities with rapid growth rates and great competitiveness have a high demand for human resources. As a result, they have become rivals to Guangzhou in the competition for talent. Guangzhou has become less competitive in attracting local talents.

Annex: New findings of this year's survey on best employers:

Findings related with the list of best employers:

1. The emerging innovative industry and financial enterprises are the two major sources of this year's newcomers.

2. The brand recognition for employers from finance and education industries has been rising annually while the recognition for telecom industry employers has dipped.

3. The gap between state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-invested companies is narrowing; but state-owned enterprises are still the main force of best employers.

Findings related with university students' job-hunting:

1. Education industry, cultural industry and finance industry are most preferred by university students in their job hunting, which are followed by government departments and public welfare institutions.

2. When surveyed on preferred nature of employers, university students' interest in state-owned companies and public welfare institutions has declined while their interest in foreign companies has been rekindled.

3. Recruitment websites are still their first choice when university students seek recruitment information.

4. Students stress more on the balanced combination of the companies' development prospects and their personal development while brand recognition of the enterprise is not necessarily the primary factor to consider in job-hunting.

5. Students' expected salaries have been rising annually while their expectations are particularly high on foreign company employers.

6. Analysis of university students' employment confidence shows that more students are prudently optimistic about job hunting.

University students' career planning:

1. The students' favorite places of employment remain stable while the developed areas are more attractive.

2. The percentage is rising of students who seek to get employed right after graduation, while taking up advanced studies is still high on graduates' agenda.

3. Student entrepreneurship: Students choose to accumulate enough capital before starting their own business. Lack of capital and experience is the biggest difficulty.

About ChinaHR.com

Since launched in 1997, ChinaHR.com has been boasting China's leading recruitment website. In 2008, ChinaHR formed a profound strategic partnership with Monster Worldwide, a globally leading online recruitment service provider, formally becoming a member of its global recruitment website.

ChinaHR.com provides online recruitment and comprehensive recruitment solutions for employers, suitable candidates from China and other parts of the world and competitive recruitment results for enterprises. For job seekers, it provides free recruitment information, satisfactory job searching and matching as well as individualized online career guidance. Our innovative service is changing the lives and working styles of people.

For more information about ChinaHR, please visit http://www.chinahr.com.

SOURCE ChinaHR.com